Which to use
“bread” and “breath” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,981
- “bread” frequency rank
- #2,880
- “breath” frequency rank
- 5861
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bread | breath |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A foodstuff made by baking dough made from cereals. | The act or process of breathing. |
Where the eye mixes bread and breath
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between bread and breath
A purely visual mix-up. bread (/brɛd/) and breath (/bɹɛθ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5861, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bread is recorded at frequency rank #2,981, classified as anoun, pronounced /brɛd/. breath is at rank #2,880, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɹɛθ/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 5861, this pair ranks #513,725 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bread vs breath
Shared letters: aber. Private to "bread": d. Private to "breath": ht.
"bread" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "breath" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bread" and "breath" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "bread" vs "breath" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "bread" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "breath" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #513,725 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bread" and "breath" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bread vs bren". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #513,725 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.